BRIDGEWATER – For all the success the Montgomery High School softball team enjoyed last season, going 24-3 and claiming a conference championship and the program’s first sectional title since 2004, the 1-0 loss to Bridgewater-Raritan in the Somerset County Tournament final was a setback the Cougars never got over. Friday night, with another in a long line of phenomenal pitching efforts in this tournament’s championship game, Montgomery finally reached the one goal that eluded them a year ago.

Senior right-hander Peyton Schnackenberg turned in her second straight lights-out effort in this tournament, following up Wednesday’s four-hit shutout of Watchung Hills in the semifinals by tossing 6 2/3 innings of no-hit ball Friday night before settling for a two-hitter, outdueling Hillsborough sophomore Courtney Wengryn, as the third-seeded Cougars topped the No. 1 seeded Raiders 3-1 at the Nap Torpey Athletic Complex.

“It’s so surreal right now, I keep looking up at the sky and I can’t believe this happened,” said Schnackenberg, who allowed one run on two seventh-inning hits, walked two and struck out 11, as her team improved to 15-7. “We worked really hard, we got really strong from the losses we’ve had, we knew the feeling from last year and we never wanted to feel that feeling ever again. We stepped up.”

“Last year they were crushed, no doubt about it,” said Montgomery coach Bryan Upshaw, whose team claimed the program’s first county title since 2009. “The postseason meeting they wanted this, all offseason they wanted this more than anything. They wanted that banner in the gym and that sign in the outfield, and the seniors, they deserve it and the whole team deserves it.”

Schnackenberg came firing out of the gate, retiring the first seven hitters she faced before Olivia Warner walked with one out in the third after it initially looked like she had been retired on a dribbler out in front of the plate that was eventually called foul. Warner went to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on another wild pitch to give Hillsborough a 1-0 lead.

Wengryn, meanwhile, was excellent in her own right and got some stellar defense behind her to keep the Cougars at bay for the first five innings.

Montgomery threatened in the top of the first inning, as Maddie Wilson singled with one out and Abby O’Connor ripped a two-out double, but Wengryn rang up a strikeout to end the threat. The Cougars mounted another rally in the third, as Sam Mallen was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and then went first-to-third on Julia Loffredo’s sacrifice bunt. But Hillsborough third baseman Julia Kwiatek made a perfect throw to the plate on a hard grounder to nail the runner, before Wengryn stuck out the next hitter to close out the frame.

Down 1-0 and with all the momentum appearing to be in the Raiders’ dugout, Montgomery finally had its game plan pay off in the sixth inning. Loffedo led off and reached on an error, before Wilson rapped one to shortstop, with Loffredo beating the toss to second base to give the Cougars first and second with nobody out.

What followed was the defensive play of the game, as Schnackenberg hit a smash to shortstop that Delaney Smith was only able to knock down. As the ball trickled away from her, the Raiders shortstop gave immediate chase, scooping the ball up behind third base and she fired home, with the ball hitting the dirt in front of the plate. But Boro catcher Kelsey Galevich barely flinched, making a brilliant, seemingly effortless scoop of the short hop and in one motion applying the tag to nab the sliding Loffredo for the first out.

But that’s when disaster struck for the Raiders defense. After O’Connor was intentionally walked to the to fill the bases, Alexis Swerdlow came up and hit one to third base, but the throw home sailed wide allowing both Wilson and Schnackenberg to score to make it 2-1 Montgomery. Tori Ferraiolo then hit a sacrifice fly to right field, with O’Connor scoring when the high throw home couldn’t be handled, to make it 3-1.

“I kept telling them, put the ball in play and good things will happen, it’s as simple as that,” Upshaw said. “We wanted to be the first team to score in this game. It did not happen, even though we had opportunities, but we didn’t let it affect us. We came back, put the ball in play, got those three runs in that inning and I couldn’t ask for anything more. They did their job. I told them, energy had to be up, and that’s what they did. “

Wengryn certainly deserved a much better fate, allowing no earned runs on just three hits, walking one (intentionally), hitting a batter, and striking out five. And although she and her teammates couldn’t muster a hit through the first 6 2/3 innings, this team that’s averaging 11 runs per game, one that fought its way back from a disappointing and embarrassing 5-14 season a year ago to reclaim its place at the top of the softball scene, certainly wasn’t going down without a fight.

It looked as if Schnackenberg might just throw the first no-hitter in a county final since Bridgewater-Raritan’s Lauren Fitzsimmons did it in 2008, especially when Wilson gunned the leadoff hitter at first base from right field on a would-be single to start the seventh inning. But after getting a soft liner to first base for the second out, Kwiatek finally got her team off the schnide, ripping one to left field for a two-out single. Smith followed by sneaking another single to left to bring the winning run to the plate, but Schnackenberg finished it up with her 11th strikeout to end it.

“My mindset was just to get them out one pitch at a time,” Schnackenberg said. “I took a deep breath, I needed to calm down. It was a big moment and I just needed to embrace it. And my teammates were all behind me. Abby (O’Connor) came up and high-fived me, Tori (Ferraiolo) came up and high-fived me, and just knowing that they were all behind me and they were there for me, it fueled me to do it.”

“She was dealing,” Upshaw said. “Just like the Watchung game, when she was pitching, she had that hungry face on, just to dominate after each pitch. And she was doing the same exact thing (today). I tell her before each inning when I hand her the ball, I tell her to just dominate, because she’s a dominating pitcher. All she needs is the confidence, and she has it.”

Staff writer Simeon Pincus can be reached at CourierSoftball@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @SimeonPincus and at www.Facebook.com/SimeonPincusCN